The aclacinomycins are a group of closely related 11-deoxyanthracyclines which show great promise as anticancer drugs having lower cardiotoxicity than the clinically valuable anthracyclines daunorubicin and adriamycin. Our objective is the total synthesis of the aclacinomycin aglycone aklavinone and the modified aglycone 4-deoxyaklavinone, starting from inexpensive anthraquinones.